TALIBAN CHARGE FRENCH JOURNALIST AND TWO PAKISTANI GUIDES WITH ESPIONAGE
October 10, 2001, New York—CPJ is deeply concerned by the ruling Taliban’s announcement that journalist Michel Peyrard and his guides, Mukkaram Khan and Mohammad Irfan, will be tried on charges of espionage. Peyrard, a French national, is a reporter for the weekly magazine Paris Match. Khan, a Pakistani, is the regional correspondent in Mohmand Agency…
American journalists threatened by protesters
New York, October 10, 2001—Susan Taylor Martin, a reporter for the St. Petersburg Times, and Jamie Francis, a photographer for the same paper, were threatened and harassed by protesters angered by the recent U.S.-led bombing campaign in neighboring Afghanistan. The two were reporting in Sakot, a town in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province, when they…
TALIBAN ARREST FRENCH JOURNALIST AND TWO PAKISTANI GUIDES
New York, October 9, 2001—CPJ is deeply concerned about the detention of French journalist Michel Peyrard and his two Pakistani guides in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. A Taliban official has accused Peyrard, a reporter for the magazine Paris Match, of spying. The Afghan Islamic Press (AIP), a Pakistan-based news agency with close links to the Taliban, reported…
Taliban release British journalist
New York, October 9, 2001—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) welcomes the release of British journalist Yvonne Ridley, a reporter for London’s Sunday Express who was imprisoned by Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban militia for 10 days after entering the country without a visa. Late yesterday evening, October 8, Taliban escorts drove Ridley to the Pakistani border…
CPJ COMPLETES FACT-FINDING MISSION TO ETHIOPIA
Addis Ababa, October 9, 2001—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) today completed a fact-finding mission in Ethiopia with a visit to jailed journalist Tamirate Zuma at the Kerchele Penitentiary in the capital, Addis Ababa. In the last year, Ethiopia has seen a gradual improvement in its press freedom climate after nearly a decade as Africa’s…
CPJ concerned about ongoing restrictions on journalists
New York, October 9, 2001—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned about the Palestinian National Authority’s recent restrictions on journalists operating in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. CPJ has learned that Palestinian authorities today barred foreign journalists from entering the Gaza Strip in an apparent effort to thwart negative coverage following yesterday’s bloody…
FARC rebels harass journalists
Bogotá, October 5, 2001—Leftist guerrillas from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) harassed seven journalists on September 28 while the reporters were on their way to cover a protest march sponsored by Liberal Party presidential candidate Horacio Serpa. Eight FARC fighters erected a roadblock and stopped the journalists around noon outside the southern village…
DETAINED BRITISH JOURNALIST FACES TRIAL IN AFGHANISTAN
New York, October 4, 2001—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is greatly alarmed by the Taliban’s announcement today that British journalist Yvonne Ridley will face trial for entering Afghanistan without authorization. “She will be tried because she broke the laws of our land and entered the country without permission,” Mullah Abdur Rahman Zahid, the Taliban’s…
Supreme Court issues disastrous decision in case against newsmagazine
New York, October 4, 2001—In a major step backward for press freedom in Argentina, the Supreme Court last week upheld a lower court ruling against the weekly newsmagazine NOTICIAS. According to the judgment, NOTICIAS violated former president Carlos Saúl Menem’s right to privacy by reporting on his extramarital relationship with Martha Meza, a former schoolteacher…
CPJ dismayed by U.S. pressure against Arab satellite news channel
New York, October 4, 2001—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned by reports that U.S. officials pressured Qatar in an attempt to influence the news coverage of the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera satellite channel. Following a meeting yesterday in Washington, D.C., with U.S. secretary of state Colin Powell, Qatari ruler Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani…